Andrii Danylenko

The article deals with a developmental cline of the ego-et-nunc communicative scope in Slavic versus Germanic and Romance. The author posits a two pathway grammaticaliza­tion for the Indo-European ego-et-nunc communicative scope progressing along the axis of syntheticity and the axis of analyticity respectively. The prospective perspective (aspect) is typical of Slavic while the retrospective perspective is observed in the analytic Western European languages. Each of the two grammaticalization pathways is characterized by four possible changes as determined by particular configurations of the societal factors (synthetic complexification, synthetic simplification, analytic simplification, analytic complexification). The author places the systematic typology of Mel’nikov in a wider context of areal-typological and genealogical research.

The article discusses the premises of the systemic typology of G. P. Mel’nikov in comparison with the precepts of the sociolinguistic typology of P. Trudgill. The author, in particular, looks into the correlation of linguistic patterning and societal structures as presented in the two theories, and offers a detailed synopsis of the societal factors and their valuables (external determinants) used in the respective disciplines. Detailed discussion of the societal factors as presented in the systemic and social typologies is offered. Major differences between their classifications in Mel’nikov and Trudgill are substantiated. Finally, based on the postulates of Mel’nikov’s typology, the paper dwells on the concept of internal determinant or, the communicative scope which optimizes all the levels of language system, while co-varying types of social structures with types of linguistic patterning.

The article deals with the transcriptions of the Old East Slavic toponym Kyjevъas found in the Arabic classical geographical literature. The author critically assesses the latest contributions to the study of this toponym and the respective readings offered by the orientalists since the times of Christian Martin Frähn. Based on the well-known readings and paleographic reconstructions, the author elaborates on several formative models (stemmata) of the Arabic transcriptions of the toponym Kyjevъ which are all interrelated and chronologically attuned to the prehistorical change kū- > kī in Common Slavic.